


Rescue

by DragonSorceress22



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: A little sappy, Bloodshed, Established Relationship, Family, Found Family, Guns, I am meanest to my favorite characters, In more ways than one, M/M, Post-Conan Kudou Shinichi, Sappy Ending, Swearing, Two Shot, Violence, a little angsty, playin' it fast and loose with the law, protectivedad!Nakamori, thank goodness for Haibara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-23 00:21:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14320323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22
Summary: In the end, it wasn’t a sniper. It wasn’tThem. It didn’t even have anything to do with KID outside of his heist being a convenient distraction. It was just some hard-luck with a gun and a motive and his hands around Shinichi’s throat.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because Shinichi and Kaito were having way too much fun in Tales of Travel. Apparently.
> 
> Beta’d by [solomonara](http://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara/works)!

_Where_ is _he? He wouldn’t miss a heist. There’s only fifteen minutes till the warning’s time._

Honestly, if Shinichi had run up to the site of KID’s announced heist at the very last second, Haibara wouldn’t have been that surprised. But something was off and she couldn’t shake that feeling. Shinichi wasn’t answering his phone no matter who texted or called. He’d been missing too long.

“Professor,” Haibara said a little too sharply, startling Agasa and the other members of the Junior Detective League who were waiting with her on the street outside the museum. “Give me the car keys.”

Her hand was already outstretched and Agasa reached into his pocket, dropping them into her palm even as he started a cursory, “The car keys? Why–?”

She had already taken off. Mitsuhiko, Genta, and Ayumi skidded to a stop behind her when they reached the Beetle (because of _course_ they would follow) and Haibara threw open the passenger side door. A quick rummage through the glove box and then she was flopping back into the seat with the spare tracking glasses perched on her nose.

“All right, Kudou-kun,” she murmured as the glasses booted with a chirp. “Where did you go?”

A quick cycle through the glasses’ functions and she pulled up the GPS screen. A few more clicks through the sidebar menu and she weeded out the blips for her own tracer and the three badges crowded right beside her as the kids demanded to know what was going on. That only left the pulsing dot for the tracer Agasa had added to Shinichi’s resized ball belt as a replacement for the Junior Detective badge he could no longer carry. It was… just up the road?

“Honestly,” she bit out like a curse. “If he had me worried for nothing–” She hopped out of the car and shoved the door shut again. “Wait here,” she tried without much hope that any of the kids would actually listen. Then she started down the street at a jog, one eye on the tracer’s blip as the marker for the glasses approached it. In no time at all they overlapped, but Shinichi was nowhere to be seen.

“Now what?” Another quick cycle through the menus and she set the zoom function to lock onto the tracer’s signal. Then, panning slowly over the street, she waited for a reaction. Still nothing – until she looked up. She had to cross the street to see, but the glasses had locked on to a window most of the way up a towering office building. And there, backed against the glass in a losing struggle against a shadowy figure, was Shinichi.

Haibara whipped around, the view through the modified lens blurring and shifting as it tried to adjust. She wrenched off the glasses. “Get the police!” she shouted at the kids.

“Haibara-san–”

“Kudou-kun’s in trouble,” she snapped, pointing up at the building across the street. “Get the police over here right away.”

“R-Right!” Mitsuhiko stammered. He and Genta turned to run back to the museum but Haibara grabbed Ayumi’s wrist before she could follow.

“Not you,” she said, frantic, eyes darting over the street and across storefronts. “Come with me. Hurry.” She tugged Ayumi back in the direction of the museum but stopped in front of a convenience store that was closed for the night.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered, staring up at the shop’s security camera. Then she dropped onto the sidewalk, scrunching her face up and clutching at her chest as she curled onto her side. Ayumi was on her knees beside her in a moment.

“Ai-chan! Ai-chan, what’s wrong?”

Haibara ignored her, counting seconds in her head and hoping this plan would be worth the fear she could hear in Ayumi’s voice.

“Can’t you hear me? Ai-chan, please, tell me what’s wrong!”

“Ojou-san.”

Ayumi jumped at the sudden voice and accompanying shadow that fell upon them. By the time she’d looked back over her shoulder KID was already crouching at Haibara’s other side.

“What happened?” he asked.

Before Ayumi could answer, Haibara shoved herself up from the sidewalk and latched onto KID’s arm in a full-body hug. “Grab him!” she shouted at Ayumi.

“H-Huh? Oh. Oh!” The tears that had been gathering in Ayumi’s eyes shook free, trailing down her cheeks, but she grabbed KID, mirroring Haibara on his other arm. “W-We caught you, Kaitou KID-san!”

“Ah,” KID replied, bemused. “You knew I’d be monitoring the nearby cameras and turned it to your advantage, huh?” _And scared the life out of Ayumi-chan, seriously, Haibara, what were you thinking?_ “Well if you think you can hold me–”

“Wait!” Haibara shouted, and KID went still at the desperation in her voice. “Kudou-kun’s in trouble. The police won’t reach him in time.”

“Kudou Shinichi?” KID’s eyes flickered back toward Ayumi.

“Look!” Haibara insisted, and she shoved the tracking glasses onto KID’s face with no regard for the monocle that dug into his nose underneath them. The auto-zoom feature was already enabled and she grabbed his face and turned his head, pointing him in the direction of the office building.

KID was gone even as a sharp curse slipped between his teeth, leaving Ayumi and Haibara stumbling. By the time the abandoned glasses hit the pavement, a white figure was already rushing up the side of the building toward that window.

 

For a moment, even as he disappeared from the street and out of the grasp of the two junior detectives, wild thoughts of  trickery and traps chased themselves through KID’s mind, telling him to confirm what he had seen with his own tools rather than taking what the tiny scientist had handed him at face value. But those thoughts _were_ wild – frantic with the evidence of his own eyes and the fear and desperation in Haibara’s. Shinichi needed him, and that was all that could matter for now.

As the grapple retracted, rushing KID up the side of the building, he readied the device in his hand and slapped it onto the window beside the one he’d seen Shinichi through. The spring-loaded hammer inside shattered the entire pane in one shot, the safety glass beading and scattering as KID swung feet-first into a dark elevator lobby. Right beside him, the thug with his hands around Shinichi’s throat let out a startled shout and reeled back, letting go so he could cover his face. Shinichi crumpled to the floor.

If asked, KID would not have been able to say what exactly had happened next. But the thug was tangled in scarves in the corner under an overturned plastic ficus and that was good enough because Shinichi was still on the floor, utterly unresponsive to anything around him.

KID’s hurried check for spinal damage was cut abruptly short when he realized there was no pulse moving beneath his fingers.

“You’re kidding me… _Shinichi_!” The name slipped free like a curse even as he swept a patch of floor clear of glass in one motion and laid Shinichi on his back. “I– can’t– believe– you’re– such– a reckless– _idiot_!” KID ground out, each word punctuating a two-handed beat on Shinichi’s chest as he worked to restart his heart.

It didn’t take much. KID had Shinichi breathing again in no time and then he was fumbling Shinichi’s phone from his pocket with shaky hands. As soon as the ambulance was on its way, he dropped the phone and let himself breathe as well.

It was a lot to process. Four minutes ago he’d been lying in wait, his heist set to begin, just like any other night. Now he was sitting in a pile of glass on the floor of a random office building listening to sirens echo on the street below and praying they were headed his way.

Shinichi hadn’t woken. Far from the arrogant, sharply brilliant famous detective, he only looked small and young in his jacket, jeans, and sneakers, collapsed on the floor with each breath rasping through his bruised throat. KID’s hands were still shaking but he never once let go of Shinichi’s wrist, his eyes locked on the shallow rise and fall of Shinichi’s chest.

And then the thug that Shinichi had been trying so hard to stop picked up the gun Shinichi had previously knocked away from him, and fired.

The only thing that stopped it from being KID’s head was bone-deep reflex. Some part of him processed the reflection in the unbroken windowpane and KID took aim himself, firing the card gun faster than he could even look back at his target. He struck the gun but the shot still went off and the bullet caught KID in the stomach.

KID coughed the sudden welling of blood and bile onto the floor, convulsing even as he dropped the card gun and lobbed a handful of gas and flash bombs toward the shooter instead. The thug let out a rather satisfying cry as he was engulfed in smoke, strobing light, and sleep gas, but KID’s focus held fast. His next handful of bombs were small, impact-detonating charges that he threw at every remaining window in the lobby. More smoke bombs next. More flash bombs. Anything to draw attention to this place. Every sleep bomb he had was tossed in the corner with the shooter until KID was out of things to throw.

By then he could hear helicopters closing in, search lights flashing off the shattered windows and beaming through the clearing smoke, and that was good. He had to bring them all here, _now_. He couldn’t protect Shinichi like this and he couldn’t leave him either, consequences be damned. He knew that. He knew all of it. But even as he started to lose his grip on consciousness, even while he knew he was no help to Shinichi now, he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Not when Shinichi’s heart had been still and silent under his hands just minutes– _seconds_ ago, really.

The last thing KID thought he could hear as he folded to the floor, bleeding freely but still clutching Shinichi’s wrist, was the ding of an elevator, the slide of the doors, and the hurried footsteps and frantic voices of two people – the one who had helped him save Shinichi, and the one who would arrest him for it.

“Kudou-kun!”

“KID!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops I wrote a thing. This idea had been bouncing around my head since back when I was still working on the Prism Love series. Then some stuff happened and it was suddenly what I needed to write. *shrug*
> 
> I think I’ll shoot to post the second chapter Wednesday. Please look forward to it~!


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, it wasn’t a sniper that got Kaitou KID caught. It wasn’t _Them_. It didn’t even have anything to do with KID outside of his heist being a convenient distraction. It was just some hard-luck with a gun and a motive and his hands around Shinichi’s throat.

Kaito didn’t wake even once as his gloved hand was pried from Shinichi’s wrist, or when he was loaded onto a stretcher, curled on his side because the glider supports wouldn’t allow him to lie on his back. He didn’t wake after he was brought down into an ambulance and those glider supports and everything else were very carefully cut away from him while his best friend’s father, his neighbor, his own surrogate guardian barked orders at the paramedics and hovered pale and faint at his side. He stayed out during the surgery, and stubbornly stayed under long after that. Kaitou KID had been caught. The longer he kept his eyes closed, the longer he could avoid that reality.

Though neither knew it, Shinichi and Kaito lay side by side, the only two beds in a secured hospital room – “secured” in that Nakamori had dragged a bench in front of the door and slumped down onto it, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. The room itself was dark but for the sunlight falling around curtains that did nothing to hide the window that so obviously meant “escape route” to anyone who had ever so much as heard of Kaitou KID.

But what had led to that display of contradictory efforts were the frantic and determined words of so many allies.

Haibara was the quickest. The phone calls in the back of Shinichi’s ambulance on the way to the hospital had involved such a fierce rush of words that none of the people she’d called had managed a single reply before she was hanging up to call the next. That was how the FBI had ended up at that hospital as well, carefully spinning tales of an undercover assignment selflessly taken up by a young genius in place of his father who had been killed in action. Anything – _anything_ – to protect one they could only see as an ally in their greatest fight, regardless of the technicalities.

“It’s imperative that nothing appears to have changed,” Akai Shuuichi had explained with impeccable calm to Nakamori before they even knew if KID – if _Kaito_ – would survive. “He has to appear as an enemy of law enforcement or his role in this operation can’t work.”

“But I can’t…” Nakamori looked helplessly back at the doors, beyond which Kaito – _KID_ – was undergoing surgery for a bullet wound, red and bloody through a victim too young. Far, _far_ too young, just a nine-year-old brat pulling his daughter’s pigtails, and a sixteen-year-old punk bumming free meals off him almost every day, and a smitten young man so obviously in love with the pest in Nakamori’s investigations, but only when he thought no one was watching. Or maybe just when he knew only Nakamori was watching. Because Nakamori was always watching. How could he not when that young man was his as good as his _son_ –

“You don’t have to,” Akai said. “It might be best if you resign. But no one else can know about this. No one can know why, and no one can know who he is. We’ll talk to the paramedics and the doctors, but beyond them you’re the only one who knows, and we need to keep it that way.”

“Kudou-kun…”

“He knows too, but he has all along.”

“Ch-Chikage-san?”

“…Yes. She knows. Her husband–”

“Right. Right, of course.”

Akai’s hand landed firm and solid on Nakamori’s shoulder and he wanted to throw it off. This punk from some other country’s force telling him how to handle this… _situation_ – this shatter-an-image-with-a-mallet-only-to-find-out-it-wasn’t-an- _image_ -at-all-it-was-a-window-and-just-because-that-glass-isn’t-between-you-anymore-doesn’t-make-what-you’ve-seen-change-at-all _situation_ –

“My son is in there. He’s been _shot_.”

“Yes, and yes. Look, I’m about to tell you something I know you already know, but I think you need to hear it right now. Kaitou KID has saved so many lives – lives you and I don’t even know about. Lives no one knows about but the ones who were saved. Sometimes not even them. He’s a force for good. You can be proud of him.”

_Kaito. KID._

Akai’s hand slipped from Nakamori’s shoulder. “At any rate, we’ll deal with the media, quietly. There’s nothing more you need to do but I’m sure you want to stay. We’ll need someone to watch over Kudou-kun for us. And KID, of course, once he’s out of surgery. You up for it?”

No response, and Akai was about to walk away until Nakamori called his name. Akai turned right into the punch but his body was too well trained not to react, moving with the momentum to cut the force. He ended up on the floor but all his teeth were still in place and his nose was fine. Nakamori’s hand seemed unscathed as well so he’d call it a win even as Nakamori spat out above him, “Don’t you dare come around here talking about my son like you know him better than me. Don’t you dare come around here asking me to play a role in your shady government games. And don’t you _ever_ pull another kid like them into your sorry excuse for law enforcement ever again.”

Akai got to his feet, keeping a hand over his cheek in case it didn’t look serious enough to leave as is. “They’re adults, Inspector,” he said. “I know it’s difficult–”

“Now,” Nakamori snapped. “They’re adults _now_. Don’t think for one second I haven’t realized when exactly this all started. Now get out of my sight.”

And Akai had. He’d left promptly and dealt with the technicalities and secrets as promised, and Nakamori sat on his bench and waited.

 

The oxygen mask over his face when he woke made sense, Shinichi thought, based on what he remembered. The silk hat and monocle resting in plain sight on the table beside his bed did _not_ though, and neither did the sight of Kaito lying in the next bed over.

The little table suddenly vibrated with a _buzz_ and Shinichi’s phone lit up with another in what seemed to be a long string of missed texts. His breath sounded hollow against the plastic mask, harsh and a little too quick as he struggled to sit up and grab the phone.

The first missed text was from Haibara: _“Don’t do anything stupid. We’re taking care of everything.”_

Shinichi’s eyes moved back to the hat and monocle then returned to the phone.

The next was from Jody: _“We’ll need to debrief but everything will be okay.”_

Another, from Akai: _“Your attacker has been arrested. His two targets have been secured and are safe. Good work.”_

Some part of Shinichi wanted to laugh at that, but he was still too scared. Between every text, his eyes slid back to the hat and monocle and then to Kaito. He couldn’t help hoping his brain would eventually realize that it must be confusing those shapes in the shadowy room, or that he would wake up for real any moment because this… couldn’t be reality.

There was a text from Agasa: _“They won’t let us in to see you yet but they said you have your phone. Are you and Kaito-kun okay?”_

He didn’t know the answer to that. He didn’t know why Kaito was in the hospital. He couldn’t remember anything after that guy had pinned him to the window and gotten his hands around his throat.

Shinichi’s fingers brushed the oxygen mask. He felt all right. Sore, particularly through his throat and chest, but all right. Slowly, he removed the mask and slid out of the bed. The chart at the foot of it confirmed that he was mostly fine. He turned to Kaito.

Maybe part of him was scared, but he didn’t reach for Kaito’s chart first. His brain had been resisting the evidence of his eyes since the moment he’d woken up and he didn’t want to read it in undeniable black and white. He wanted to see Kaito.

Once he was standing beside the bed he had to acknowledge the IV in Kaito’s arm, but Kaito’s skin was warm when he rested his hand on his forehead, and his color wasn’t too bad either. He seemed to be breathing fine. Just sleeping.

He wanted even less to look at the chart now and have that proven wrong, but he did it: gunshot wound, left abdomen. Nearly the same place Shinichi himself had been shot back when he was still Conan. But Kaito had apparently received treatment almost immediately.

 _He should have been at the heist. What_ happened _?_

Shinichi left the chart and shakily returned to sit on the edge of his own bed. A quick search on his phone only confirmed one suspicion and raised so many more questions. The heist hadn’t happened. It was all over the news: KID never showed, but an office building down the street from the museum had had several windows blown out in some kind of event that the police had yet to comment on.

Shinichi recognized the pictured building easily. He could put it together well enough. After all, the guy he had tracked down, realizing barely in time what would be happening the night of the heist, had been armed when Shinichi had found him. He’d knocked the gun away but it had still been there, _must_ have been there when Kaito– KID must have saved him and then–

“Dammit,” Shinichi breathed out, and it hurt. It _hurt_ all through him. The word was rough in his throat and left a feeling like a hollow lump seated high in his chest. His eyes stung and he turned away from where the hat and monocle still sat, accusatory, and it was all his fault. KID-killer indeed. His hand clenched around the front of his hospital tunic, his eyes squeezed shut and his body hunched, tense and aching.

 _What can I do? There must be_ something _I can do._ His eyes snapped open and he looked to the door. Light from the hallway was spilling in from underneath and he could see the steady shadow of two feet. _A guard, then. But… also a window?_ His eyes fell to Kaito and his stomach turned. The window didn’t matter. Not when KID had been shot. Shinichi pushed to his feet, fingers white around his phone, and moved to the far side of Kaito’s bed – as far from the door as he could get. He sank to the floor and called Haibara.

“Kudou-kun?”

“What happened?” His voice was low, but not because it hurt.

“You shouldn’t be talking–”

“Don’t want it in writing,” he insisted quietly. “Tell me.”

Haibara sighed into the phone. “I found you with the tracking glasses. You were in trouble so I told KID. By the time Nakamori-keibu and I caught up, he’d been shot.”

Shinichi’s eyes skated back toward the hat and monocle again even though he couldn’t see them from his position on the floor. “Who all… knows?”

“Four EMTs,” Haibara answered briskly. “Two ambulance drivers, three nurses, and a surgeon. A handful of task force officers were on the scene, too – they may have seen his face. …Nakamori-keibu knows.”

“Fuck. Haibara–” His voice was rough and low and so saturated with pleading desperation that Haibara wanted to pull back from the phone.

“We’re working on it,” she said instead, tart.

“On _what_?”

“On clearing him. The FBI – they want to take responsibility for Kaitou KID–”

“That’s ridiculous–”

“Is it?” she shot back. “Aren’t there so many more officers under cover as something far worse than a nonviolent phantom thief for the exact same reasons KID is what he is?”

“It would be an international incident if the FBI tried to claim Kaitou KID–”

“I told you; we’re working on it. And I also told you not to talk. Look, don’t worry about it for right now. There’s nothing you can do. Anything you say would only be seen as personal interest. You _have_ to leave this to independent authorities or you’ll just make things worse.

“And by the way?” she added, no less harsh. “You’d be dead now if he hadn’t done what he did, so it’s not for nothing. It’s going to be okay and there’s no use dwelling on it, so don’t. Let me talk to Kuroba-kun.”

Shinichi took in a rattling breath. “He’s not awake.”

“…Fine, then. I’m hanging up. You need to rest.”

Shinichi stared down at his phone until the screen went black.

 

Quiet voices woke Kaito. Some he could place – Haibara, Nakamori, his mother. Some his brain couldn’t handle just then – two men and a woman with faint American accents, plus another man. Then Shinichi’s voice cut through despite being the weakest of them all.

“He’s awake. This can wait.”

Kaito opened his eyes to the blurry image of Chikage and Nakamori shooing everyone else out of the room before Shinichi stepped into his line of vision.

“Sh–” He swallowed, rough and dry, and tried again. “Shinichi–”

“Shh, it’s okay. Everything’s okay.” Shinichi sat on the edge of Kaito’s bed and pushed his fingers into Kaito’s messy hair. “Kaito,” he whispered. “Hey, I promise, it’s all right. Tell me what’s wrong.” He leaned in, hunched over Kaito so he could touch their foreheads together, and Kaito only felt more lost. But then Shinichi’s thumb brushed the corner of Kaito’s eye and it wasn’t until he felt the wet trail it left across his skin that Kaito realized he was crying. He took in a shuddering breath and let it out in a broken rush of words.

“I ruined everything. Kaitou KID is– I f-failed and– Shinichi, I’m so sorry.” He shut his eyes tight and the tears ran back to the pillow under his head instead of down his cheeks.

“Weren’t you listening?” Shinichi laughed, but it was definitely hoarse and Kaito flinched at the unfocused memory of Shinichi collapsed amidst the broken glass of that elevator lobby. He felt Shinichi shift on the bed and press his lips against Kaito’s forehead. “I told you, everything’s okay. Your identity is… a little less secret now. But it’ll be protected. And so will you.”

“What are you talking about?” Kaito gasped out, wavering, eyes still squeezed shut as he grasped at the sheets.

“You are – well, not _officially_ , that’s the whole point – but you are now a member of Japan’s law enforcement team.”

That, at least, got him to open his eyes. “I’m _what_?”

“NOC,” Shinichi said, smiling down at him. “Non-Official Cover. All you have to do is keep doing what you’ve been doing. The FBI are the only ones who know. Well, them and some medical staff, but they’re sworn to secrecy too.”

“No.” Kaito’s hand moved to rest over his stomach and Shinichi covered it with his own and waited. “No, hang on,” Kaito muttered. “It couldn’t just be them. I’m sure I saw Nakamori-keibu before I passed out.”

Shinichi’s fingers curled a little around Kaito’s. “Yeah,” he agreed. “He knows now too, but I thought you might want to process one thing at a time. You’re okay, KID’s okay, and you’ve got some strangers in on the secret. That’s the easy part but… yeah. Nakamori-keibu knows.

“As a NOC,” Shinichi went on carefully. “You’d need an official member of law enforcement to vouch for you since nothing can be put on record. He’s yours. He insisted.”

Kaito was crying again. He felt it this time – the tears gathering and spilling over and his throat getting tight. Of all the failures that night had produced, he would tally up his poker face as another because he never could have imagined this outcome.

“Do you want to see him?” Shinichi asked gently. “We thought it would be easiest to break the news to you without a room full of cops, given the circumstances, but he’s waiting outside.”

Kaito nodded. It was all he could do. Shinichi smiled and leaned in, kissing his forehead again and squeezing his hand. “By the way,” he whispered against Kaito’s skin. “Thanks for the rescue.”

Kaito watched him walk away, past another bed that Kaito only just noticed where an abandoned oxygen mask rested on a mussed blanket. He blinked away the tears and took a deep breath.

When Shinichi opened the door, what seemed to be a fairly crowded hallway fell silent. He murmured something as he disappeared from sight and then Nakamori stepped into the room, sliding the door shut behind him. For a while he stood by it, hesitating awkwardly until Kaito spoke.

“Inspector…” His voice was thick and he knew his eyes and nose must be red, tear tracks smeared on his face, but he kept the word steady and pushed himself up to sit against the pillows. That got Nakamori to move.

“Kaito-kun–” He hurried to the bed, hands outstretched like he wanted to stop Kaito from moving. “Are you okay?”

“Oh, sure,” he replied even as he hid a wince and splayed his fingers across his stomach. “This is nothing.” He felt hyper-aware of the temptation to rebuild his poker face. It would be so much easier to face Nakamori as KID now, but this had to be sorted out. He had to face it himself.

“Did… Kudou-kun tell you–?”

“He did,” Kaito answered. “And I have a few things I need to say.”

Nakamori hesitated again but took a seat on the edge of Shinichi’s empty bed, nodding Kaito on.

“Do you know the _whole_ story?” Kaito asked. “Do you know… why and how it all started?”

Nakamori nodded again. “I do, Kaito-kun. And I understand.”

Kaito swallowed. “Then… you already know that you can’t vouch for me.”

“Kaito–”

“Let me finish.”

Nakamori subsided and nodded him on again after a moment.

“I’m a vigilante,” Kaito continued. “And you’re too close to this case. It’s a conflict of interest. If anything like this ever happened again and you tried to step in, you’d be fired. There could even be legal action.”

“Kaito–”

“I can’t let you do that for me. Not after everything–”

“ _Kaito-kun_.” Nakamori stood. “You’re not a vigilante and there’s no conflict of interest. I was Toichi-san’s official backup. Kaitou KID has been a NOC all along and the only reason _we_ even know each other is because you took up that role when Toichi-san died in the line of duty.”

Kaito stared up at him, his heart beating wildly. “Wha… What–?”

“And besides,” Nakamori added with a grin. “This will never come up again.” He jabbed his thumb at his own chest and declared, “Because no one is going to catch Kaitou KID but me!”

Kaito legitimately gaped, his mouth open but nothing coming out. _There’s no way my old man had_ actually _been a NOC, right? He’s just reciting the cover story, right?_

But it sounded so good it might as well have been the truth. After all, non-official cover meant no documentation.

 _Who’s to say that’s_ not _how it all happened?_ Kaito thought, a little frantic. _And more than that, it sounds like things could… go back to normal? Nakamori-keibu heading up the task force to chase KID around while I flush out the Organization with my heists. Only now… Nakamori-keibu_ knows _. He could prepare the task force for what’s really happening. We could even sort of… work together that way._

“Now,” Nakamori said, shaking Kaito out of the future and back to the present. “Let’s talk about KID’s official cover story for what happened to land Kuroba Kaito in the hospital last night.” He cleared his throat. “We’re blaming Kudou-kun.”

“You’re – _What_?” Kaito choked out.

“Yeah. The kid’s bad luck. He told you he was going after the shooter and you were worried, so you followed him and got a bullet in the gut for your trouble. Always knew that detective brat was no good for you.” He finished the story with a decisive nod, hands fisted on his hips, but when he glanced down at Kaito his eyes were gleaming with just a little bit of mischief. Kaito let out a weak laugh.

“I mean, it does sound kind of likely,” he allowed.

“Exactly.” Nakamori clapped a hand onto Kaito’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “That all sounds okay, right?” he asked softly. “I’m… kind of new to all this. What do you think?”

Kaito’s eyes were stinging again so he bit the inside of his lip hard before answering. “Yeah. You did great. I think, you know, if Kaitou KID were here… he’d be proud.” He managed a grin and tried not to notice Nakamori’s eyes going wet since it made his own start to sting all over again too, but Nakamori just cleared his throat gruffly and nodded, turning for the door.

“Well, rest up, Kaito-kun. I’ll swing by later to check up on you.”

As he left, Chikage and Jii hurried in, followed by Agasa and Haibara, and Shinichi as well, but Kaito’s eyes stayed on the door.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “Thanks for the rescue… Tou-san.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonding over lies! Yay!! lol
> 
> Good LORD is Tales of Travel shaping up to be a lot of work. Like, seriously. A LOT of work. I really hope it pays off and turns out well in the end but… I’m STILL on chapter one *headdesk* Still, it’s kind of amazing to think how much progress I’ve made with the story overall, even if that’s not reflected in my current page count (at least, not if you don’t count pages of notes lol). It's shaping up, and I'm starting to have good feels about it :)
> 
> Anyway, since that's far off you won't be hearing from me any time soon unless another one-shot steals my fancy between now and Tales of Travel's completion (which... not unlikely).
> 
> Thanks as always for reading <3
> 
> ~DS


End file.
